Sherdog’s Top 10: The Ultimate Fighters

The Magician

When it launched in January 2005, few could have foreseen its
impact. Zuffa LLC had dug a deep investment hole, and “The Ultimate
Fighter” -- a reality series which brought together prospective
mixed martial artists to compete for an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract -- was a last-ditch
effort to save the wilting MMA promotion.

In the seven years since, the UFC has risen to unimaginable
heights, and its groundbreaking reality show, now with 14 seasons
in the bank, has gone along for the ride, spawning three champion
and multiple title challengers, all while supplying the company
with a steady stream of marketable talent.

With Season 15, the show moves to a new live platform on the FX
network, the UFC having severed ties to Spike TV with a landmark
seven-year multimedia rights agreement with network television
giant Fox. Thirty-two lightweights will compete for the right to
join the 21 winners who have come before them when the season
debuts on Friday. In advance of the premiere, Sherdog.com has
compiled its list of the Top 10 fighters -- excluding Season 4 --
ever to appear on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series:

A blur of speed, power and technique, Dodson won Season 14 as a
bantamweight but figures to carve out his name in the UFC’s newly
instituted 125-pound division. The 27-year-old Albuquerque, N.M.,
native made his promotional debut at “The Ultimate Fighter 14”
Finale in December, when he needed less than two minutes to
dispatch
Team Alpha Male’s T.J.
Dillashaw on first-round punches at the Palms Casino Resort in
Las Vegas. A two-time state wrestling champion in high school,
Dodson has become known as one of the sport’s most inventive
offensive fighters. In more than seven years as a professional, he
has never been finished -- two of his five losses were by split
decision -- and has never lost back-to-back bouts. The 5-foot-3
dynamo will carry a three-fight winning streak into his May 5
showdown with Darren
Uyenoyama at UFC
on Fox 3, the winner of which will likely become the number one
contender for the UFC’s flyweight championship.